History

Autograph Signature ('Clarendon')

Author: 
Thomas Villiers (1709-1786), 1st Earl of Clarendon, British Whig politician and diplomat
Publication details: 
Without date or place.
£23.00

On piece of laid paper, 1 x 3.5 cm. Fair, on aged paper, with traces of previous mount on reverse, which is docketed in a nineteenth-century hand '1776'.

Manuscript account of 'Revenue as calculated to end of Charter', including reference to St Helena.

Author: 
East India Company [St Helena; Charter of 1833]
Publication details: 
Dated at foot '1845'.
£150.00

On one side of a piece of laid watermarked paper, 14 x 8 cm. On aged and creased paper. The accounts are brief, and neatly written in an unidentified hand. At foot '1845'. Headed 'Revenue as calculated to end of Charter', and featuring a total of £17,936,217 against itemised charges of £18,763517, including those incurred 'in India', 'Esp: St Helena', 'Political Chges in England' and 'Cost of '. Beneath this a section headed 'Of ye above charges may be pble in Engd'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Y. Smythies') to Twining, including two translations of 'Bishop Lowth's Maria's Elegy'.

Author: 
Rev. William Yorick Smythies (1816-1910), husband of the Victorian novelist Mrs Gordon Smythies [née Harriette Maria Gordon] (1813-1883) [Richard Twining (1749-1824), tea and coffee merchant]
Publication details: 
17 October 1838; Colchester.
£95.00

4to, 3pp. Bifolium. Text clear and complete. Fair, on aged paper, with slight loss to second leaf caused by opening of red wax seal (part of which still adheres), and minor nicking to edges. Begins: 'The task you set me was a task indeed [...] my first attempt at translation'. He comments on some of the difficulties involved ('The Cara so often repeated in the original is beautiful in repetition while it's angliciz'd Dear is so degraded by vulgar use').

Autograph Letter Signed ('Thos Dick Lauder') to William Mitchell of Parsons Green.

Author: 
Sir Thomas Dick Lauder of Fountainhall (1784-1848), Deputy Lieutenant of Moray and Haddington, Scottish writer and academic
Publication details: 
7 January 1840; The Grange House.
£75.00

4to, 3 pp. Bifolium. 61 lines of text; clear and complete. Fair, on aged paper. Having recovered from 'the surprise which I received from the communication made to me today by our mutual friend Sir James Gibson Craig', his 'first idea was to go directly to Parsons Green to give full vent to my gratitude' for Mitchell's generosity. The rest of the letter gives fulsome expression Lauder's his feelings at 'the generous - the magnificent gifts' (unspecified) which Mitchell is 'dispensing - with so little parade'.

Autograph Letter Signed to "Dr [John?] Bowring". 5 Millman Street, London.

Author: 
Thomas Dick Lauder.
Publication details: 
Relugas, 15 June 1830.
£250.00

Author (see DNB). Six pages, 4to, with hole and chip causing small loss of text, some staining, pahes attached at margin, obscuring a word or two, text clear. Profuse thanks for his "kind letter from the canal" and a later note and present. He enjoyed his short visit, regretting the loss of a day when he attended "the wrangling of a dull county meeting". More on his enjoyment of his company, and hope that he'll fulfil his promise to visit again. He goes on: "A change . . .

Autograph Note Signed ('Geo W McCrary') to Evarts.

Author: 
George Washington McCrary (1835-1890), United States Secretary of War, Iowa Republican Congressman and judge [William Maxwell Evarts (1818-1901), US Secretary of State]
Publication details: 
16 December 1878. On letterhead of the War Department, Washington.
£48.00

12mo, 1 p. Good, on ruled paper. A note of introduction for the bearer, Miss Ward [Genevieve Ward, actress]..

Autograph Letter Signed ('Eustace G Cecil') to 'Mr. Chittenden'.

Author: 
Lord Eustace Cecil [Lord Eustace Brownlow Henry Gascoyne-Cecil] (1834-1921), British Conservative politician
Publication details: 
10 October [no year]; on letterhead of Knowsley, Prescot.
£28.00

12mo, 3 pp. Good, on lightly-aged and creased paper. Recomending shares in three companies of which he is chairman, before discussing personal matters. 'Evelyn is prospering as much as an expectant & comparatively briefless barrister can [...] Arthur Balfour is doing very well - & is holding his own - & more than his own - spite of misrepresentation - downright falsehood - & the tricks which politicians in these days seem so proud'. Laments the 'standard of morality', and apologises for the 'long sermon'.

Autograph Letter, in the third person, to Ridgway.

Author: 
Edward Law (1790-1871), 1st Earl of Ellenborough [James Ridgway (1755-1838), London bookseller]
Publication details: 
16/07/35
£35.00

12mo, 1 p. Good, on lightly-aged paper, with remains of stub adhering to blank second leaf of bifolium. Ask for the Morning Post to be sent to Euston Square, and 'the Standard discontinued'. He will require the Morning Post the following day.

Autograph Letter Signed ('J A Lowell') to Rainford, concerning a consignment of botanical books from England.

Author: 
John Amory Lowell (1798-1881), American businessman and philanthropist [Edward Rainford, London bookseller]
Publication details: 
19 June 1843; Boston.
£195.00

4to, 1 p. Twenty-one lines of text. Clear and complete. On aged, stained and worn paper, with a couple of small spike holes. Revealing, in the attention to detail which it exhibits. He begins by reporting that 'the Rosabella arrived safe & the books appear to be correct with the following exceptions'. Two paragraphs follow, carefully describing duplicate plates and other faults in the books received (including "Genus Plantarum"). The replacements may be sent 'through Wilmer & Smith, booksellers, Liverpool - or by Harden's express - or through Messrs. John D.

An Address on Temperance Societies.

Author: 
A FRIEND.' [Joseph Livesey, printer, Church-street, Preston, Lancashire; provincial printing; temperance societies]
Publication details: 
Undated [1850?]. Printed and Sold by J. Livesey, Church-street, Preston.
£65.00

12mo, 4 pp. Disbound bifolium. Text clear and complete. On aged and foxed paper, with some wear and chipping. 'The distillers, merchants, and dealers; the landlords, the brewers, and the owners of licensed houses - not to say the government itself - actuated by interested motives, have all done honour at the shrine of Bacchus; and when it is understood that about a million of persons are enriched or supported by this nefarious traffic, no wonder that the happy soil of England should be deluged with this liquid fire.' Following slug: '(1s. 4d.

Autograph Letter Signed "Wm Geo. Skyring" to John Ince of the Royal Navy, of Crooms Hill, Greenwich

Author: 
William George Skyring, Naval Officer and surveyor, Captain of HM Surveying VesselS Aetna
Publication details: 
H.M. Surveying Vessel Aetna, 9 Oct. 1833.
£250.00

One page, folio, some tears on fold marks, other minor defects, text clear and complete. "I beg you to let me know by return of Post [phrase underlined] whther you desire to join the Aetna - I heard from Captn. Beaufort this morning that you do - but you have acted with so much indecision that I scarcely know whether to apply or not until more fully assured - For your Mothers sake alone I am perfctly willing to wait an answer - and if you are prepared to join - send me - / Your name at length / Date of original Entry in the Service / Name of last Ship / Rating on her.

The Charter of the United Nations. Commentary and Documents. Second and Revised Edition. [with signed inscription by Hambro]

Author: 
L. M. Goodrich and E. Hambro [Edvard Isak Hambro (1911-1977), 25th President of the United Nations General Assembly]
Publication details: 
London: Stevens & Sons Limited, 1949. [Published under the auspices of The London Institute of World Affairs]
£75.00

8vo, xvi + 710 + [iv] pp. Tight copy, with foxing to top edge and endpapers. Bumped corners. In worn dustwrapper with closed tears at head and tail of spine. Inscribed on front free endpaper to 'Stanley T. Cross, with cordial regards and thanks for good collaboration for three years. [signed] E Hambro. The Hague, September 49.'

One Autograph Letter Signed and one Typed Letter Signed to Stanley T. Cross, of the Registry of the International Court of Justice, the Hague; and four Typed Letters Signed to Cross's widow (all signatures 'E Hambro').

Author: 
Edvard Hambro [Edvard Isak Hambro] (1911-1977), 25th President of the United Nations General Assembly
Publication details: 
Letters to Cross, 1949 and 1950; letters to Cross's widow, 1950 and 1951; five on the letterhead of the International Court of Justice, The Hague.
£165.00

The collection in good condition, on lightly-aged paper, with each item carrying a punch-hole in top left-hand corner of first page. Letter One: in manuscript; to Cross; 3 September 1949; on 'Edvard Hambro' letterhead; 8vo, 2 pp. Affectionate letter on Cross's retirement from the Registry of the International Court. '[...] I find the Peace Palace curiously empty without you. I am going to miss your visits to my room and mine to yours.

The Democrat. A Weekly Journal for Men and Women. [first issue]

Author: 
William Saunders (1823-1895), newspaper publisher and editor and British Liberal politician [William George; Hackney]
Publication details: 
No. 1. Saturday, November 15, 1884. [Printed and Published for the Proprietors by J. C. DURANT, Clement's House, Clements Inn Passage, London, W.C.
£165.00

Broadsheet, 8 pp. A single sheet, folded twice and unopened. No stapling. Text clear and complete, on aged and spotted paper (not high-acidity newsprint), with wear and chipping to extremities. Articles include 'The American Elections' by Henry George; ''The Crofter Revolt', and 'The "Pall Mall Gazette" Panic'. Also 'Metropolitan Constituencies No. I. - Hackney'. Scarce: no copy at the British Library (Colindale) and the only run on COPAC at the University of London.

An Act to empower the Legislature of Canada to alter the Constitution of the Legislative Council for that Province, and for other Purposes. [11th August 1854.]

Author: 
British Act of Parliament, 1854, regarding the Canadian Legislature [Canada]
Publication details: 
London: Printed by George Edward Eyre and William Spottiswoode, Printers to the Queen's most Excellent Majesty. 1854.
£195.00

8vo, 3 pp. Paginated [1233] to 1235. Disbound bifolium. Good, on lightly-aged paper, with small hole in gutter. Headed with the royal crest and 'ANNO DECIMO SEPTIMO & DECIMO OCTAVO VICTORIAE REGINAE.' and 'CAP. CXVIII.]

An Act to empower the Legislature of Canada to make Laws regulating the Appointment of a Speaker of the Legislative Council. [8th August 1859.]

Author: 
British Act of Parliament, 1859, appointing a speaker to the Canadian legislature [Canada]
Publication details: 
London: Printed by George Edward Eyre and William Spottiswoode, Printers to the Queen's most Excellent Majesty. 1859.
£95.00

8vo, 2 pp. On first leaf of a bifolium, with the second leaf blank. Paginated [37]-38. Headed with the royal crest and words 'ANNO VICESIMO SECUNDO & VICESIMO TERIO VICTORIAE REGINAE.' and 'CAP. X.'

Two Autograph Letters Signed ('Charles Gibson' and 'Charles E. Gibson') by Gibson, as Lieutenant and Adjutant of the 49th, written to his 'Aunt Kate' from Sebastopol during the Crimean War, including a description of horse races during the armistice.

Author: 
Captain Charles Edgar Gibson, of the 49th Regiment of Foot [Crimean War; Sebastopol]
Publication details: 
Letter One: 'Camp Sebastopol. January 24th. 1856.' Letter Two: 'Camp 49 Regt Sebastopol. March 31st.'
£350.00

Letter One: 12mo, 4 pp. Bifolium. 75 lines of text. Clear and complete. Good, on lightly-aged paper. Expresses regret at 'Morten Edens melancholy death, so young & so clever as he was'. 'There is great talk of Peace. We hardly know if to believe it - few will be sorry should the news prove to be true, as I think most of us have had enough fighting. Apparently refers to his sweetheart under a cypher. She has not written to him, but 'London gaieties have little time for correspondence'. 'The weather here is something awful - cold & wet, fogs & sleet.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Julian Pauncefote') to his subordinate at the Washington Legation, 'Barry'.

Author: 
Julian Pauncefote (1828-1902), 1st Baron Pauncefote, British diplomat
Publication details: 
19 September 1891; on letterhead of the British Legation, Washington (with that city replaced in manuscript by 'Newport R.S.')
£56.00

12mo, 4 pp. In bifolium. 42 lines. Clear and complete. Fair, on aged paper. He thanks him for the news of the 'progress of repairs &c at the Legation', and approves 'of your having ordered extra help to scrub the floors after all the mess which no doubt the workmen left behind them "more americano".' The former state of the 'kitchen flue [...] may account for the apparent inefficiency of the old Range'. He will return on the 'arrival of the next F.O. Bag on Monday'. Gives his travel plans.

Autograph Letter, in the third person, to Mrs Wallack, on the occasion of the Wallacks' Paris performances.

Author: 
John Y. Mason [John Young Mason] (1799-1859), U.S. Minister Plenipotentiary to France, 1853-1859 [James William Wallack (1764-1864), Anglo-American actor]
Publication details: 
15 June 1855; 13 Rye Beaujon (on letterhead of the Paris Legation of the United States).
£85.00

4to, 1 p. Twenty lines. Text clear and complete. On aged and lightly-creased paper. Responding to 'the kind note of his esteemed Country woman Mrs. Wallack'. He is 'gratified to learn, that Mr. Wallack will present to the Parisian public representations in the English language, of the best of our Tragedies & Comedies'. He wishes the Wallacks 'the most complete success, and will with pleasure attend the performances, when his health will permit him & his family to do so'. Two of Mason's family will take up Wallack's offer of tickets for the opening.

Autograph Letter Signed ('T. F. Bayard') to the Hon. Francis Lanley.

Author: 
Thomas Francis Bayard (1828-1898), Secretary to President Grover Cleveland [Francis Lanley; Timothy Bigelow Laurence]
Publication details: 
3 April 1881; on letterhead of 1413 Massachusetts Avenue, Washington D.C.
£75.00

12mo, 3 pp. In bifolium. 28 lines. Text clear and complete. Fair, on aged paper. He is going to do Lanley 'a great favor' by assisting him 'to become acquainted with my friend Mrs. Bigelow Laurence [widow of Timothy Bigelow Laurence (1826-1869)] - who will be in England during the summer or autumn'. Reminisces about 'a book you and Casserly and I once planned at a breakfast table here', which was 'to consist of the best specimens of the skill and power of the Poets giving one chance to each'. To assist Lanley he is letting him know 'a woman who is a judge of poetry in its best sense.

Autograph Letter, in the third person, to Captain Mason.

Author: 
Thomas Francis Bayard (1828-1898), Secretary to President Grover Cleveland [Lord George Hamilton]
Publication details: 
24 May 1894; on letterhead of the Embassy of the United States, London.
£56.00

12mo, 1 p. Thirteen lines. Text clear and complete. Fair, on aged and foxed paper. Acknowledging 'Captain Mason's note of yesterday', and in response to the request of 'Lord George Hamilton and the Committee', 'Mr Bayard' states that he will 'respond with much pleasure to the toast of "the United States" tonight at the banquet to the Admiral and officers of N.SS Chicago'.

Two Autograph Letters Signed (both 'B. H. Bristow') to E. R. Robinson.

Author: 
Benjamin Helm Bristow (1832-1896), first Solicitor General of the United States
Publication details: 
Saturday May 22' [no year] and 25 June 1880; second letter on letterhead of the 'Office of Bristow, Peet, Burnett & Opdyke, 20 Nassau St., New York.
£150.00

Letter One: 12mo, 12 p. Fourteen lines. Text clear and complete. Fair, on aged paper. Asks to 'rescind' his promise to go with Robinson to the races, as 'One of those troublesome fellows whom we call clients, but who are sometimes called victims by the ignorant & vicious, has made an appointment for me this afternoon'. Letter Two: 12mo, 1 p. Asking Robinson to join him and two others at a dinner with General Burnett at the Union Club.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Isaac Heard Garter') regarding Lord Rawdon bearing 'the Surname and Arms of Hastings'; with a manuscript copy of 'The humble Petition [to the King] of Francis Lord Rawdon Baron Rawdon in the County of York' on the subject.

Author: 
Francis Rawdon-Hastings (1754-1826), 1st Marquess of Hastings; Sir Isaac Heard (1730-1822), Garter Principal King of Arms
Publication details: 
Heard's letter: February 1790; College of Arms. Copy of petition without date or place.
£85.00

Letter: Foolscap (32 x 20 cm), 1 p. Text clear and complete. 4 lines. In poor condition: on aged paper with chipping and closed tears. Male recipient not named. Heard finds 'no Objection to the Prayer of the annexed Petition of the Right Honble Lord Rawdon that he and his Issue may take and bear the Surname and Arms of Hastings.' Petition: Foolscap (32 x 20 cm), 1 p. Text clear and complete, the body of the petition consisting of twenty lines. On aged, brittle paper, with closed tears along fold lines, and chipping to extremities.

Handbill headed 'An Appeal to Working Men and Women', pressing for 'the English law to protect your girls from being led into vice'.

Author: 
Ellice Hopkins (1836-1904) and Emily Janes (d.1928), Honorary Secretaries, Ladies’ Associations for the Care of Girls
Publication details: 
January, 1885. 41, Great Russell-street, British Museum, W.C.
£225.00

On both sides of a piece of paper, 19 x 11.5 cm. Seventy-seven lines. Text clear and complete. Fair, on aged and lightly-worn paper. Contrasts the law on the continent with that in England, where 'an unruly girl at any age can go on the streets, and the person who harbours her is not guilty of a greater crime than if she were a women [sic] of thirty or forty [...] Will you not help us heart and soul in getting our English girls, - your daughters, remember, - as carefully protected as Belgian and French girls?

Autograph Letter Signed ('J Würtz'), in French, to 'mon cher Martin'

Author: 
J. Würtz [Commission Scientifique pour l'exploration des Antiquités Américaines, Paris]
Publication details: 
19 September 1851; on letterhead of the Commission Scientifique pour l'exploration des Antiquités Américaines, Paris.
£45.00

8vo, 3 pp. Bifolium. Good, on lightly-aged paper. In a difficult hand. Apparently relating to a proposed meeting and dinner for 'tous les trois' (including ''). It is curiously difficult to discover anything, either about Würtz or about the Commission.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Le Despencer') to an unnamed correspondent (a neighbouring landowner?).

Author: 
Francis Dashwood (1708-1781), 11th Baron Le Despencer, politician and rake; member of the Hellfire Club; founder of the Monks of Medmenham Abbey
Publication details: 
Hanover Square, London, 7 May 1779
£350.00

4to: 1 p. 10 lines of text. Good, on lightly aged paper. Text clear and entire. Docketed on the reverse of the otherwise-blank second leaf of the bifolium. See preceding letter on same subject (#8136). He hoped to have met his correspondent "ar WestWycombe" to discuss the cottage occupied by a "poor man" which may be on a neighbour's land. A "trifling affair". "I did nequire about it last summer, and was told that it was built on the waste by some poor man and I suppose some small fine might have been set on it by the Jury at my Court as a trespass on the waste.

Autograph Letter Signed "J Weiss" to "Morse"[Sidney H. Morse, editor of "The Radical"]

Author: 
John Weiss (1818-1879), Unitarian Minister, author, "second generation transcendentalist"
Publication details: 
Watertown, [MA], 26 December 1865.
£150.00

Four pages, 8vo, grubby and with fold marks but text clear and complete. Weiss is writing about an untimate contribution to "The Radical" and another article. "I don't know that it is a matter of much consequence, but I rather want to have my "Dangers" [Dangers of Our Political Machinery, published in "The Radical", No.III, Feb. 1866, p.208ff] in hand, that I may put it in print in some form - newspaper perhaps - beause it explains and fills out my sermon, especially on that delicate point of suffrage.

Autograph Letter Signed by Wood to unnamed recipient, recalling the Manchester treason trial of Thomas Walker and five others, 1794.

Author: 
Ottiwell Wood, radical Manchester fustian manufacturer [Thomas Walker (1749-1817), Manchester radical; Treason Trial of 1794; Luddites; Luddism]
Publication details: 
8 January 1844; Edge hill.
£150.00

12mo, 3 pp. Bifolium. Good, on lightly-aged and creased paper. Wood begins by recalling 'the savage bigotry and infuriate hostility of the Manchestr. Tories at the time you mention towards the liberals'. He does not think an attempt was made to put the Oath of Allegiance to those on the recipient's list. 'The lives of 6-8 men of high Character and standing in the Town were placed in jeopardy by the perjury of two Villains and they were tried at Lancaster for either Treason or Sedition. I think for the former.

Part of a mimeographed typewritten report into the activities of the VDA, including translations of Haushofer's 'Problems and Solutions of the VDA', Bockhacker's 'Resettlement Christmas', and other texts.

Author: 
Der Volksbund für das Deutschtum im Ausland [VDA; Karl Haushofer; Heinz Bockhacker; Nazi propaganda; Germany; Second World War]
Publication details: 
[Compiled by the American intelligence services between 1942 and the end of the Second World War.
£950.00

The spelling (e.g. 'honor') is American, the latest date mentioned is in 1942, and there is no indication that the document has ever been published. 58 pages, on one side each of fifty-eight A4 leaves (each roughly 26 x 20 cm), paginated 26 to 83. Punch holes for a binder at the head of each leaf.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Eldon') to Twining, based on a misapprehension. With memorandum by Twining, initialled 'R T'.

Author: 
John Scott, 1st Earl of Eldon (1751-1838), Lord Chancellor [Richard Twining (1749-1824)]
Publication details: 
Undated. [London, post 1801.]
£38.00

8vo, 1 p. Eleven lines. Text clear and complete. Good, on lightly-aged paper, with a couple of spots from the leaf to which it was attached adhering to the blank reverse. Docketed at head in ink: 'Mem I know not to what application this refers.'; and at foot in pencil: 'Mem I was not the writer of the Letter referr'd to! | R T'. Eldon has received the recipient's letter, 'with a paper inserted from Mrs <?> Campbell or Clark. This paper is addressed to me under a very common Misapprehension of the Chancellors powers & duties'.

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